I’ve spent the last 15 years in the tech startup community including several early stage ventures with successful exits in the healthcare space. I'm also a Top Writer on Quora (2012 and 2013) for several healthcare specific topics. I'm likely to include film references and quotes as in "All of life's riddles are answered in the movies." Twitter handle is: @danmunro

Healthcare's Often Missing Element - The Human Element

About 6 years ago Dow Chemical sponsored what became a series of iconic TV commercials – simply called The Human Element. They still crop up occasionally - and I still think they are CLIO worthy – but no wins to date. A summary of the soothing, violin accompanied voice-over went like this:

For each of us there is a moment of discovery. In the flash of a synapse we learn that life is elemental. This knowledge changes everything. We see all things connected. The element not listed on the chart – is the missing element – the human element. And when we add it to the equation – the chemistry changes. Every reaction is different. The human element is the element of change. Nothing is more fundamental. Nothing more elemental.

In the course of those same 6 years we’ve raced breathlessly – sometimes frantically – to bring the promise of new technology to healthcare. E-Health, M-Health, D-Health – all with varying degrees of success but all with the same triple aim – improved care, health and cost.

Xerox has new evidence to suggest that there are still some sizable gaps in at least one critical element of our healthcare transformation – and it’s that human element. A recent survey of 2,147 U.S. adults, conducted for Xerox by Harris Interactive found that only 26% want electronic health records (EHR’s). Even beyond that surprise, only 40% of respondents believe that EHR’s will deliver better, more efficient care – and that’s down 2% from last year’s survey. About 85% also said they have privacy concerns about EHR systems generally. Those concerns aren’t unfounded. Today’s headline over at ModernHealthcare reports that over the last 3 years there were over 470 healthcare data breaches that involved the medical records of over 20 million people.

Much of that human element relates to a variety of customer experiences around all the different dialog’s in healthcare (physician to hospital, hospital to payer, patient to doctor etc…). In this context, consumers are really all of us – regardless of any healthcare affiliation. Fundamentally changing these experiences isn’t as simple as slathering on a glitzy web design – or racing full throttle to the cloud and mobile. Recent headlines certainly aren’t conclusive – but they do suggest ample room for innovation and improvement – especially around that human element:

In an effort to help providers to maximize the value of an EHR, Xerox turned to researchers at the venerable Palo Alto Research Center (PARC – a company that Xerox spun-off about 10 years ago) as a way to explore the landscape of innovation around EHR’s.

A big part of PARC’s healthcare work for Xerox is using ethnography and other social science methods to observe and analyze actual work practices – not just what people say they do – said Steve Hoover, CEO, PARC. If there’s one thing that this survey tells us, coupled with our own experiences, it’s that you should never develop or deploy technology outside of the human context.

PARC’s rich history in engineering innovation is legendary – spanning more than 40 years – and includes such key developments as laser printing, Ethernet, the modern personal computer, graphical user interface (GUI), object-oriented programming, ubiquitous computing, amorphous silicon (a-Si) applications, and advancing very-large-scale-integration (VLSI) for semiconductors.

Relative to healthcare, Xerox acquired ACS almost 3 years ago – which in turn acquired The Breakaway Group last fall (in part for their PromisePoint® technology – a kind of flight-simulator for large-scale EHR deployments). Last year, ACS signed a $500 million, 10-year agreement with Allscripts for hosted IT Services using Allscripts’ Sunrise Enterprise Suite to support EHR’s. These large scale connections (Xerox, ACS, Allscripts) combined with the innovation engines of companies like PARC and The Breakaway Group represent an exciting development. It’s where innovation – including the human element – meets scale – in healthcare. PARC’s influence is still relatively early – and most clearly represents the opportunity around that human element. Steve Hoover summarized it best:

PARC helped to usher in the era of ubiquitous computing – but in the evolution to truly personalized computing we recognized the critical importance of contextual computing. Bringing that deep understanding to large industries like healthcare is both a rich heritage – and an exciting opportunity. It’s also one we’re extremely passionate about.

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Article raises a crucial issue. With *Health (* = d, m, e, ..) humans, especially patients will have a lot more “touch points” with the technology in general and health technologies in particular. The the challenges in addressing human elements will significantly surpass the scope in this article. Use of sensors, ambient computing, etc will be a key part of this. Corresponding “contextual computing” will have a lot more to take care of – starting with patient’s perspectives, abilities, dependence, reliance, trust, preferences, personal traits, and so on, in the technology seeking to improve/benefit his or her health.